Apprendre le français avec l'aide de l'internet

(Learning French with the help of the Internet)

To vary our otherwise monotonous life, my friends and I decided to learn a new language – French. So early one Saturday morning, we drove to Makati and along with twenty five others, enrolled in a level one class. We’re basically learning what the kids (aged 7-11 years old) in the next room were learning. Our instructor is a Filipino who has been teaching French for 11 years in the institute and previous that, in UP Diliman. He began by saying that he teaches French, well, in French.

As most of my classmates are multi-lingual, I felt a little behind in the learning curve and decided to look up other materials to keep up. As always, the internet came to my rescue. I goggled “learning French” and was pointed to several website, including Wikibooks, with useful materials. Google and yahoo (Translate and Babel Fish, respectively) in fact, provide for phrases and website translations. The torrent sites were even more helpful with available audio copies of the Living Language and the Rosetta Stone series. Like the compulsive pack rat that I am, I booked marked every relevant page and downloading every e-book and audio book I could find. By my estimate, I now have enough materials to last me for 6 months, more than the two months I enrolled for in the Institute. Hmm…Maybe I should have thought of this before enrolling.